{EAV:8c7c9bf78864d983}

FUN-Nana!

Many people tell me I don’t look my age. I won’t make any secret of the fact that I love that! Frankly, I work at keeping myself fit and dressing youthfully. I enjoy being able to do things that some women half my age struggle with. For instance, I like to ride my bike, and I pride myself that I can still go ten or twelve miles over mixed terrain, that includes some steep hills and gravel trails. I may be over fifty but I’m not ‘over the hill’!

I don’t mind admitting that when my grandson, Elijah, was born I was not too thrilled about the title of Grandma – it definitely conjured up visions of a grey haired older lady in a rocking chair!  I did not want to be labeled ‘Old’! I soon realized I was not alone: Lots of my baby-boomer friends had children when they were in their early 20’s. And those children had children in their early 20’s…which has led to a whole lot of forty something grannies! As most of us don’t want to be reminded that we now fall into the same category as our own grandmothers we’re come up with a long list of creative names: Meemaw, Meme, Mamaw, and probably one of the most popular Nana.

I tried on the title when he was born and it seemed to be a good fit, so I am Nana Karen. Eli is now eleven and this summer he made his first solo flight to visit ‘the Funnana’. That’s what he calls me – I am the fun Nana! I will take him to Crash Comics to buy Magic cards; in fact I am willing to learn to how to play with them. I will let him play Minecraft on my computer and eat ice cream straight from the tub. I will buy him new sneakers (even if he doesn’t really need them) and have a couple of Carl Heisen books waiting when he gets here. (He really likes Chomp and Flush.) We always have a lot of fun together.

But the ‘Funnana’ outdid herself this visit. We went to the City Museum in St. Louis; the one we featured in last month’s issue. It was more fun than we could have imagined from the pictures…amazing place. But it’s full of places to climb, crawl, and scoot through – well not just through: Over, under, around and into would be a more accurate description. And the ‘Funnana’ had to join in! Up there in the cage, waiting for Eli to take a picture, I took a moment to reflect: This time last year I was in a hospital bed on chemo and wondering if I would live until Christmas. Here I was, having a blast, three stories up in a small cage tunnel, surrounded by hundreds of children and adults - and feeling really alive! Thanks Eli for making sure the ‘Funnana’ had fun!